Jubilee Family Festival

Time Out says

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1 out of 5 stars

Time Out says

A two-day family festival for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, featuring live music and entertainment on the main stage and in zones including the Kids Zone, the Disney Zone, the Parade Ground – featuring the White Helmet Motorcycle Display Team – and The Commonwealth, with Harambee African drummers, Maori Haka dancers and more. Great British food in the form of pies, roasts, pastries, fish and chips, jellied eels and cream teas will be served and roaming the festival are traditional entertainers including Pearly Kings and Queens, marching bands, men on stilts and singing tea ladies. The headline live show is 'The Magic of Disney in Concert', with music, songs and characters from films including 'Beauty and the Beast', 'The Jungle Book', 'The Lion King' and 'Sleeping Beauty' – along with all ten Disney Princesses. The main stage also features performances from the BBC's 'Strictly Come Dancing', hosted by Craig Revel Horwood, and excerpts from 'War Horse'. Hosted by Myleene Klass and Jon Culshaw.

For anyone that has not received a refund... email the chief executive - justin.king@saisburys.co.uk You should get a full refund of your tickets by way of a cheque (though you may be offered gift cards or nectar points initially)
I am still pursuing them for my travel costs

Just found this thread. We went on the Sunday. So glad we had not paid for tickets. Huge queues for the inside shows so we did not see any of them. Long waits between the brief snatches of shows on the main stage. We stuck it out in the rain for the Disney finale as our 4-year-old son loves Disney. Brief appearances by a few characters. Lots of boring singers. What a waste of an afternoon.

We are a family on 4, 2 adults 1 disabled child wheelchair bound and 1 able bodied child. Had a dreadful experience at this so called "family" event here are a list of the things that we experienced
1.on arrival ticketmaster coudnt find our accesisble + carer tickets so they gave us standard tickets. 2. the event opened 30mins late, staff seemed unsure what to do and didnt offer any sort of apology for the delay, there were also no bag searches .why?
3. access to kidzone difficult, with no guidance from event staff, too crowded
4. disabled toilets not wheelchair accesisble, had to change our daughter on the grass of st johns ambulance tent.
5. If we wanted access to disabled viewing platform, our family would have been split up.
6, not enough caterers...queued 2hrs for a burger and chips and then 1 hour for an ice cream.
7. ladies toilets blocked, causing long queues, event staff just shrugged shoulders, they werent interested
8, questionable food hygiene of the caterers, as 3/4 of our family have been sick since, our doctor has confirmed this was caused by consuming contaminated food, only our daughter wasnt sick, the only one who didnt eat from the caterers at the festival.
Our entire jubillee weekend was ruined by A. your excuse for a family festival, and B. the sickness endured by our family, for the following days, that we are only now getting over.
Compensation? In my opinion a full refund for this debacle is the least that should be given...so we can afford to attend an Event better organised and with better food safety.

My family and I couldn't wait for this event but wow were we disappointed at the queues for everything! 40 mins for the loo, two hours for the disney tent followed by queues inside the disney tent! Disney tent was good and kids tent was okay but packed! I countred 300 watching the great Punch and Judy show! Too many people lining corporate pockets! What a shame!

The confusing and disorganised manner in which instructions were given by the marshals’ meant that entrance turned into a frustrating free-for-all where queue-jumping was rife. At the top of the list of our priorities once we had entered the site was the ‘Kids Zone’ (since we have a 4 year old son), which we made for directly but this was even more of a farce. The venue was clearly too small for the demand placed upon it and once again marshalling was virtually non-existent. It made for a cramped, unpleasant environment from which we all wanted to escape as soon as possible. Later in the day the queues for both the ‘Kids Zone’ and the Disney tent were so long that it made it totally impractical to attend. Similarly the way in which the ‘Parade Ground’ was sited the crowd was often 5-deep which made viewing anything almost impossible. However, the Kids Zone was to be the focus of our visit and to be excluded from this for the rest of the day due to the queues meant we had to look elsewhere for entertainment. We were also frustrated with the provision and choice of food stands which we felt was totally inadequate for the size of the event; we queued for fully 1 hour for a baked potato; I could also add that the prices charged at the food stands were outrageous. Since this was an all-ticket event I feel there should have made better provision in this regard. I felt most disappointed when it became obvious that the primary aim of this event was to offer promotion to corporate partners or ‘Britain’s Favorite Brands’ as thry would have it; I felt the focus on this objective overshadowed the rest of the event entirely. There were such obvious omissions – where were the children’s activities? No bouncy castles! No face painting! No Children’s TV/Film characters wandering the site! No fun fair! With the exception of the London African Gospel Choir we got no sense of celebration from the event - mediocre acts, long queues, expensive food and ladles of advertising for good measure. We would have been better off wandering the streets of the capital soaking up the genuine jubilee atmosphere; which is exactly what we decided to do after being subjected to ‘Ramin’ on the Main Stage; we had little alternative given than our whole family was by now entirely bored and fed up of queuing. It was billed as “action packed and imaginative … once in a lifetime experience for the whole family to enjoy”. In short I felt this event was a rather cynical marketing event which prayed on the good nature of families with young children. My family and I routinely shop at Sainsburys stores and had confidence in their reputation but this experience has left such a bitter taste in my mouth that I can hardly bear to be associated with your brand any longer.

We paid £52 of our hard earned money on this advertising extravaganza, what a rip off. Definately the worst show we have ever taken the children to. Queues for absolutely everything. I draw the line at joining a 100m queue for a free box of rice crispies. Queues for food. Children couldn't see anything unless on parents shoulders. At 5ft there's only so long I can keep my 8yr old daughter on my shoulders. Disney show was more of an adult classical concert with Buzz & Woody coming on stage mid-show. Very, very disappointing day and really deserve refund.

I sent a long email to Sainsbury's customer serivces this morning, cc'ing in the editor of the Standard, the editor of the Metro and also Justin King, Sainsbury's CEO.
They delt with the complaint well and have credited my Necter Card with the full £80 I paid for tickets. Fair play to them for dealing with it so well.
I urge others to complain and ensure they get the refund that we all deserve for such a wasted day out.

Very very disappointing. We traveled in from outside of London, with two very excited children, a rare family day for us as my husband works most weekends. As previously mentioned we paid £52 for a family ticket and £25/parking for the day. We entered the site expecting to find all sorts of activities that our our 4 & 7 year old could be involved in. We walked around the site and there was nothing for them to do that involved anything less than a two hour queue. The queues for food were horendous, we have been to many large outside events and I have never seen anything like it. The whole event just seemed to be a marketing event for sainsbury and products they sold. I have no doubt that Sainsburys made these product companies pay a fortune for their stalls as well. The tickets were bought in advance so Sainsburys must have known hgow many adults and children were coming, it was a total money grabbing exercise - disgraceful! I was extremely upset by the event, I stopped a young man wearing a sainsburys badge to complain and after ranting for a minute, he advised me to go to brand awareness to complain. We walked to brand awareness who couldn't help or advise and sent us to the info tent and the lost children desk. There were four young adults in the tent who had no idea, they looked at their list of contacts and their was nobody listed for complaint issues - WHAT! We booked the duck tours at Waterloo at a cost of £70 and left livid feeling totally fleeced.

Should have been renammed the Sainsbury's sponsor festival absolutly nothing to do with the Jubilee but everything to do with thrusting a marketing message. We queued for over an hour for the lame Disney tent to be greeted by 3 cars you couldn't touch, another queue to meet Jake the pirate, a playstation game, a TV showing 3D films and a few random B list Disney figures dotted around the dark dank tent. My 2 year old was upset as nothing for him to see, no figures to meet. The Disney store offers better entertainment than this so we went there the next day! The rest of the site was boring and drab not helped by the weather. No focus to the activities, nothing jubilee or royal about it. We cut our losses by 12 but did meet to Ice age characters on our way out, why weren't they there earlier? Glad I didn't pay for tickets.

We were extreamly disappointed. After like others paying a ridiclous amout to actually attend this event, only to find that inside it was still so expensive. As majourity of this was for children, how they were expected to have fun i dont know. After queueing for each stall to the have to queue for over an hour to see the sows. And everything to far apart for kids to get about happily. we even queued for well over an hours for s prize of the Andrex puppy, to which we still never got to the front of the queue as we have to catch out coach back home. Very disappointed. A refund of some sort should be offered to these complaints. I will add that I will think twice next time!!

What a rip-off. £105 to get in and once in anything on sale was either ridiculously expensive (£11.50 for a chicken sandwich meal that KFC could do better for a fiver and I don't even like KFC!) or just unashamedly commercial. The stamp system to get your free goodie bag started off as a bit of fun but ended up with kids having to stand in long queues and taste some or other product and all to claim your "goodie bag" containing some money off vouchers at Sainsburys, a mask of the queen and a pathetic kids activity sheet. Reminded me of many a trade exhibition I have attended but certainly not a kids party. Glad some people enjoyed the event but more glad the majority thought it awful (I was worrying that I had just become that grumpy old man my wife insists I am!!). Was this really the best we could do for our kids to celebrate 60 years of ER2? If I could rate if 0 stars I would.

I write to you at my earliest opportunity following a disappointing jubilee event in Hyde park attended by my family and some friends that we invited wit us.
Having reviewed the website it seemed like one of the best things too do with 2 three year olds.
We arrived at 10:35 and queued to get into the event, this took until 11:25, but can only be expected due to the popularity of the event and security checks. Having familiarised ourself with the map of the event we decided to stop and watch the Morris dancers OT the village green. Unfortunately, there was a delay due to the late arrival of the town crier, we waited then watched the event. 12:10 we went to find the food kiosks, its lunch time, we had too queue, again can only be expected. 12:35, we sat down to lunch. 13:15 we decided to attend the Disney tent (something we have been telling my 3 year old son about for weeks, the chance to see mater and lighting McQueen) having queued for 25 minutes, one of the security team (I assume as was in an orange jacket) came to advised that from where we were was going to take at least 1.45 - 2 hours to get into the tent and could we come back later. 13:45 we decided to go too the butlins family tent, feeling slightly disappointed and promising the children to return to the Disney tent later, as requested. 14:00 we managed to get into the but ins tent, only to be stood at the back, and be able to see nothing so left. Not much fun for the children. We then decided to walk the length of the event to the main stage, where eventually we managed to watch a choir ( the first thing to be seen at 14:30) my. Wife and friends then stayed to watch strictly come dancing at 15:00 whilst my friend and I left to return, as requested to the Disney stage. To our shock and massive disappointment, we arrived at the tent 15:25 to find it CLOSED with no reason or explanation, shocking. We decided to go to some of the other brands tents. Kingsmill where we queued to make sandwiches with the 2 three year olds, 20 minutes of queuing we got to the front - we are closing the stall for 20 minutes, we left the queue. Next stop the kids family tent to see again another character show. The queue was gigantic, we would have been in the same situation we were in earlier in the day. I had spent £100 to queue all day and not do or see anything that i had promised the children we would do. What to do for a further 2 hours before the "grand amazing finale" - 16:30 we cut our losses and left the event. We asked to see the customer services team on the day to be told the isn't one and to report online. I am sorry to send such a negative email, but this was an expensive weekend (hotels, tubes, entrance to Hyde park) to an event that promised to be spectacular for a massive moment in history, turned out to be chronically disappointing. Ticket refund? Join the queues!

I am writing to express how disappointed my family and I are following the Sainsbury's Jubilee Family Festival on Saturday in Hyde Park.
On arrival everything was disorganised and we were forced to form a queue of thousands to get into the event from Hyde Park Tube station and we were queuing for over an hour with three children who became very tired and fed up even before we got in.
Inside the event we were expected to pay a further £5 for a programme which we felt was ridiculous given we had paid over £50 to get in. There were thousands of people queuing everywhere, most tents ie: disney and butlins tent queues were over an hour long... and the disney tent closed at 3pm so we didn't even get to see it.... and my son was upset that he couldn't see Fireman Sam as the 300 capacity meant we were not close enough to the start of the queue to get in.... very upset children. The parade ground was barely visible and my husband and I had to piggy back each of our children in turn so that they could get a glimpse of something.... eventually we had to get them off our shoulders as my husband damaged his back from all the carrying.
The Main stage was packed and so was the cultural stage.....
We got the impression that the event was mis-advertised and was nothing more than a glorified picnic with companies using the event as an excuse to promote their wares... We were expecting more to do... climbing walls, bouncy castles, carousels, trampolines etc and were so disappointed that we had paid a fortune in car parking and rail tickets to get to the event and paid £53 for the Tickets and it was not the 'Family' Event that we were led to believe... We ended up leaving at 3.30pm as we were fed up with the queues and the lack of things to do.... Very Very Disappointed as we shop regularly in Sainsburys and had spent weeks telling the children that they would see all of these disney characters, pearly kings and queens, dog shows, marching bands... and they didn't see any of it....... I would like a Refund for our tickets please.

Give the British an opportunity to queue and complain and that's what they'll do.... With the exception of the Disney tent, we avoided all of the queues and instead watched the acts on the stages and central arena. We never had to queue for the food stalls or toilets - probably because everyone was queuing at the supplier tents.

Interested to read these comments as feel reassured we weren't the only family massively disappointed with the event. It was simply awful. Huge queues and nothing interesting for the kids to do. My kids were bored which says it all....as they never get bored. Now I will try and get a refund!

This was a discrace and a total waste of £52, Sainsburys should refund everyones money, and absoloute discrace - 20minutes we were there which was the time it took to walk from one end to the other of Hyde Park - there was nothing there apart from a few tents giving away samples of tissues/detergents etc. and a few beer tents selling 330ml botle of beer for £4.00 - Can someone explain what the £52 was to cover? You got exactly the same thing for free the next day when they screened the Jubilee Concert> This to me was a blatent con, Scandle.

What a complete waste of money and a rip off. We walked through the park and everythimg seemed to be disjointed so we walked out at the nearest EXIT. We had a better and more exciting time wlaking down Oxford and Regents street. In actual fact there was more entertainment in Hamleys!!!! Sainsburys hang your heads in SHAME

Total waste of money ! A load of nothing ! We walked in and walked back out within an hour . Rip off . We went to winterwonder land at christmas and it was fantastic ,sainburys should have looked at that event before trying to put together this complete farce !

The festival was rubbish!!! We went on Sunday from about 3pm till 5pm, missing the Pagent on the River. Everything got cancelled due to 'Health and Safety' and that was before it rained!! Nothing worth seeing apart from War Horse. I would be even more disappointed if I had actually paid for the tickets... and that is saying something!!

After reading all the miserable people's complaints i felt I had to comment. The event was great fun!! Apparently 60,000 people there on Sat, of course there will be queues!! If you don't want to queue go to a smaller event. War horse and the main stage were absolutely fantastic and The Disney show was one of the best things I have ever seen. The biggest complaint i had was how many miserable grown ups there were. The kids loved it. Such a shame to leave such a sour taste. Travelled 4 hours to get to London and would go back tomorrow if I could see Disney again. It was super. Shocking people attending-so rude!! Sometimes these things are what you make of them. I had no complaints. Pieminister food was great, small queue(we expected queues...duh) No queues for toilets, everything clean and staff enthusiastic!! Don't be so blimming miserable!!! Our kids were still raving about it last night. We had a super time!

Wish I could enter minus 10 star rating. Ticket master failed to email electronic ticket. Was told to walk 15 minutes outside fence from south gate to north gate with 2 and 4 yr old to see rep. Was treated like someone who was taking a chance to get in for free even though my money was taken. First inkling of poor, thoughtless organisation of event. In hindsight I should have been paid to go in! Queued for nearly two hours for burgers at £6 a pop before adding chips. Children queued for over an hour for kids zone. (not because it was popular as someone suggested in another review), but because we were duped to believe it would be entertaining. What a disappointment. Someone dressed up in a Fireman Sam suit jumping around to music. No props or decor to speak of. Completely missed Thomas which was what my youngest son was promised to see. The program (a further purchase of £5) should not only have stated the event time but a queue warning of over an hour. The military event was more Dad's army and the stunt motorbikes were in fact a children's group. The whole thing smacked of amateurs having their moment of glory at our cost. Not what you would expect at tickets of £52 in a key London park. The only thing worth listening to was the Disney orchestra (listening as we could not see the stage). The whole thing was a logistical disaster. Grates even more as I usually shop at Sainsburys. As a Londoner I am ashamed of this fiasco. To have called this a jubilee event is to spit in the queen's face.

Agree with all the comments on this site. We thought we were lucky to win the tickets to this event - thank goodness we did not pay for them ??!! There was nothing to do at all for the kids - had promised them Disney princesses and Angelina Ballerina etc etc... We queued for the Disney tent for near on two hours - promising them at least a princess inside - when we got inside - we found there were yet more queues for other things to do. We did see the cars but that was about it... so a two hour queue to see ...nothing basically. The events in the main arena were ok - namely the dogs and the horses. But I had to constantly lift up my seven year old and my hubby our four year old - as there was no way they could see... my arms are killing me as she weighs four stone ... surely there should have been a better way to see these things... we then decided to see the motorbike show - which after waiting for ages - were told that this was cancelled a few minutes before they were due to start ?? surely they knew before this that there was no way they were going on. We then wanted to see the Strictly show, so we sat on the grass and waited for about an hour to get a good spot. This was the only saving grace - a good show - compared by Craig - but literally lasted about fifteen minutes ?? Then decided to go home and not see the Disney spectacular - with two disappointed children in tow... Very upset by everything... at least have some entertainment for the kids whilst they were queuing. We had to struggle to get on a train to get to the event - in a way, we wish we hadn't bothered - should have gone to the river instead... load of rubbish ...

We attended the family festival on Sat 2nd June in Hyde Park with a 4 mth old and a 2 3/4 yr old and trekked across London to get there.
We were so disappointed at everything in the festival. We had to queue for everything for far too long (thank Goodness we brought a portable potty or my 2 year old would have wet herself on several occasions). The Disney tent closed at 3.30pm so we couldn't get into that resulting in tears from my 2 and 3/4 year old. Food and drink queues were unbelievably long, the Thomas the Tank Engine show was OK but noone left after each performance so my husband had to crouch with my daughter on his shoulders and badly hurt his back, the queues for each tent were ridiculous, queues for 30 mins to get some free ham!!!.... We didn't bother, thank Goodness we brought a picnic.
Poor show Sainsbury's - UTTER SHAMBLES.

Worst day out. Cant believe that once in the place we had to pay for a £5 programme. I have had better entertainment at my hol in turkey and that says it all. The disney show wasn't what we expected, woman singing instead of the characters. Only 5mins into the disney show and loads of people were making the way to exits. NEVER leave a stage empty, we waited a long time in-between the different acts on main stage. Disney adverts on screen whilst waiting in the cold rain. I mean it when i say i refuse to shop in sainsburys again even if it meant i have to travel an extra five miles to my next supermarket. Everyone we spoke to in the queue said they were angry and never want to shop in sainsburys again. I feel upset for my kids, thanks for wasting my money. I wish it had been a day to remember. gutted and actually feel sick with disgust at how there was nothing on for toddlers. I had my camera at the ready but nothing good or worth taking pics of.

A reasonably good event and and ok value for money.
Really what did people expect for this price??
There was plenty of space and we certainly didn't queue to get in, queue for the toilets or queue for the bars. Ok so there were queues for the freebies but we left them to the cheapskates to give them something to moan about (seems some people just like to complain)

Such high hopes and expectations of a wonderful family day out. How wrong we were. One of the worst family events we have been to since becoming parents. All the day turned out to be was a marketing roadshow...with dishwasher tablets, headache pills and enough loo roll to keep us going till Christmas, being shoved down our necks. Sainsbury's should be ashamed of themselves cashing in on such a historical day. Blatantly ripping parents off, who went there thinking the event would keep their children and themselves entertained for the entire day. Instead there were just queues for Branded products, small glasses of apple juice, and some dire Non-Branded music! We left after two hours. Unhappy kids, and £52 less well off. My husband, said on the way there...lets just go to the movies instead...should have listened to you honey!!

really bad, nothing to do for the kids, went to lollibop last year it rained but various tents to entertain the kids like the making rockets in the science museum tent! the dog show, marching bands could have seen that for free at a local village fette, the motorbikes did not do a show! sack races?? - rubbish! just queues galores!other than selling of union jack flags, hats etc, the event had nothing to do with the Queens Jubilee or for the family!! Just the promotion of brands... The main stage should have at least had ongoing entertainment so people could at least watch something... very very poor what a waste of time and money!

Absolute disgrace. Sainsburys, the promoters Harvey Goldsmith, and sadly Disney should all be ashamed. But of course they wont be because they have managed to extract thousands of pounds from trusting families.Attended on Saturday and I have never seen so many disappointed children and angry parents at one event.And the anger is fully justified. A Kids Zone you couldnt get into, total commercialisation of everything. The Disney tent closed three hours before the event was due to finish. This had nothing to do with families let alone children. Eveyone should take the time to complain to everyone involved as these people need to know they cannot just expolit innocent families and children. I have spent the last two days explaining to my three year old why we couldnt see any of the Disney characters or other childrens characters she had been so excited about. Not that it wiil make any difference but a message to Sainsburys.You will not find me in one of your stores again as it is the only way to demonstrate against the contempt you clearly hold your customers in.
Oh and the one star is for the London African Gospel Choir who were excellent and the only saving grace of the day.

Took my 6 year old daughter, lots of travel time and cash burned, rarely have I felt so robbed and she so disappointed. By all means sell it as a tattoo/multi-cultural concert but not as a family event when the 'family' elements are so sadly lacking.
I'll be keeping an eye out for the organisers name to avoid future events they're involved with and will doubtless remember it next time I choose a supermarket.

Contrary to the majority of others on here, we enjoyed our day. Only had to queue for the toilets on arrival and for an ice cream but found that queues moved swiftly. We chose not to waste our day queuing for freebies. There was a lot of marketing tents but we just didn't bother with them. We got a great spot between the parade ground and the Commonwealth stage and it was lovely. Plenty to see and we took a picnic so didn't need to queue for overpriced food.
[I had a great time we really enjoyed ourselves and there was lots to do. There was a long queue to get in and it was worth the wait. Every one complaining about Sainsburys, it wasn't Sainsburys fault that there were queues. Laura,aged12]

Attended on saturday - what a waste of a day! Got there at about 12.30 and tried to egt some food, had too que for about 40 minutes to pay £6.00 for a roll that tasted like it was made a week ago, waited to see the parachute jumpers only to be told at the last minute that it was cancelled because 'they couldnt get a plane' absolutely ridiculous! Tri3ed to que for the disney tent only to be told we werent allowed to because the que was already too long! Complete discrace, sainsburys should be ashamed to sponsor such a shambles. Had more fun at the school fete!

Agree with all these reviews! Truly terrible, no where near enough for the kids to do. I am not sure quite what we paid £60 for - long queue for the kids zone and a peek at the war horse puppets which were good but hardly constituted a 'spectacular on the main stage' - this event was totally over billed and under delivered. Too much effort on sponsors and not enough thought as to the actual experience people were paying for. My kids spent all day trying to collect stamps for their passports from miserable sponsors (there was nothing else to do) only to be rewarded with a completely empty and cheap 'goody bag' at the end. Sainsburys should be totally ashamed of this event and have done their brand untold damage - I hope they do the right thing and offer refunds. We would have felt more a part of the jubilee at home watching telly. Off to our local village fete today which I expect will be far better executed.

The family festival provided everything they had promised. There was amazing entertainment with music and dance from around the world on the Commonwealth Stage, fantastic displays from dogs to military bands on the (wet and muddy!) Parade ground, we missed the Kids Zone (due to long queues which proved it's popularity) but we loved the amazing Billy Elliot, Ramin, War Horse and Disney in Concert on the Main Stage.
The alfresco dancers braved the rain (maybe a little crazy?) And although we packed a picnic, there was plenty of food laid on courtesy of the stands, which of course were there to advertise their products, but most laid on small kids activities which were popular. Many gave out little freebies and some supplied free photos of what they'd made or of the children/families.
Most people are complaining about the queues to those activities, which to be fair were long, but we were there for the entertainment not so much for what we could get for free. There was a long queue (about an hour and a half) to the Disney tent, (popcorn and candy floss supplied free) but my 2yr old, 5yr old and even 12yr old thought it was worth it. They watched a bit of Sky 3D, played x-box kinect, saw life size Lightening McQueen, Tow Mater and Finn McMissile and some other Disney Characters and were welcome to have photos taken with them. Security staff were extra helpful with many parents of small children with pushchairs!)
The day was a little marred by the weather, it did seem to spoil it for some as it meant rushing from one place to another but hey, who can control that.
We had a great day.

The party i travelled with have said they had better days out at local fairs. Badly organised and to it was an insult that they expected you to go around to all the local advertises to get your book stamped for some crap bag. Waited in a que for hour and half with bored kids, no entertainers going around as you qued. My four year old said when i asked him, what he thought he said there wasn't lots to do. Thanks sainburys for conning me out of £60 for my kids to not enjoy one thing. Why did we have to pay an extra £5 for a programme of times. The disney show wasn't even rated either, the characters were only on the stage for a couple minutes, why did we bother waiting in the cold rain. Also in the advert video, you gave the impression the motobike show was going to be indoors. The motorbike show was cancelled due to the weather. What a waste of a day and never going to set foot in sainburys again. CRAP EVENT. I want £50 refund

This was advertised to be a great family event. It was terrible, no sign of anything to do with the jubilee and not enough activities so hours of queuing for everything. Very disappointing. We left after queuing for several hours and went to the Natural History Museum. Much better!

Excellent idea, terribly executed.
Advertised as a family friendly festival although we spent the whole day in queues. We were one of the 'lucky' ones to get into the Disney tent just before it closed after waiting 2 hours queuing, as we were promised to meet the Disney characters .... there was only one. The Kids Zone was so packed and queues horrendous we couldnt even get in. The only other family friendly events were ... NONE. My 3 and 4 year old children ended up falling asleep mid afternoon shattered from waiting, queuing, and continuous dissappointment. What did this have to do with the celebration of the Queen's 60 years on the throne??? Absolutely nothing. It was one big back slapping exercise for Sainsburys, Britains Biggest Marketing Ploy, a devious and calous attempt by Sainsburys to cash in on what should have been a family day to remember (for the right reasons).
The whole event was so disorganised, there was a complete lack of atmosphere. People walking rushing from point A to point B, to spend 30 minutes in a queue to obtain one of their 15 stamps so that they can obtain a Jubilee Edition Bag filled with goodies. We were one of them, we received the bag with nothing in it.
My wife and I discussed very early on to leave and venture into London. We decided to give it a chance. We made the wrong decision. On speaking to many others, many couldnt agree more. A waste of £52 and what should have been a magical day to remember.
WE WILL NEVER EVER SHOP AT SAINSBURYS AGAIN.

Sainsburys should hang their heads in shame. This was not a family event, it was a marketing exercise. What do children experience in the form of brands like dettol and vanish ? Collecting stamps for a sainsburys bag of more mini brands...another marketing gimmick ! Toddlers cannot wait 2.5 hours for the "possibility" to see their favourite characters. We did not even try after the security guy said " you will probably not get in as they close at 4.30 pm
for the stage performance. The time was 2pm ! The sound quality and performance of the (butllins) bob the builder was so poor we left. My husband bought the tickets - ".... an utter waster of £50". The children loved the tube and taxi....will remember to
keep it low key next time !

What an utter utter Shambles of an event the Jubilee Family Festival was. Everything has been covered in the comments below but I think this travesty should get far more attention then it has done which is why I propose all those disappointed with the event should email the Evening standard "editor@standard.co.uk" and Shame Sainsburys into refunding this farce of an event. If the standard gets hundreds of emails then they will have to take notice.

we went to the festival on Saturday with our 4yr old daughter and it has to said it was a complete shambles. we didn't have to queue to get in (got there about 12.15pm) but inside there were queues for everything, except the toilets!! there was plenty of free food to have but you did have to queue for it and that took ages. we tried to get into the kiddies tent to see Fireman Sam but it was over an hour to wait. the security there were rude and kept telling people that we wouldn't get in as there wasn't a lot of space inside the tent. of course the children started crying then thinking they couldn't see their favourite character. there were people queue-jumping and the security didn't want to do anything about it until we started to make a big fuss. one man just walked straight to the front of the queue, even after being told by security to go to the back of the queue, and security only removed him after people made a lot of noise. got into Fireman Sam show but it wasn't that good. didn't last for more than 20 mins and then we were all told to move because they wanted to clean the tent!
I am so glad that I won the tickets because if I'd paid for them I'd have been arguing with people for a refund on the spot. we left at 4.30pm as we were bored and really couldn't be bothered to wait for the finale at 5.20pm and just went through one of the exits into the park. security just let us out, think they were fed up with it all.
definitely wouldn't recommend the event to anyone and agree its just a big promotion for Sainsbury. they should be ashamed of themselves and never do anything like this again. better still give everybody £100 of vouchers for compensation. I also will not be shopping in Sainsbury after this fiasco!

We went on Saturday to this event and what a waste of a day. Everybody has said it all. In fairness, War Horse was amazing, we loved that. Everything else was either unavailable (Disney - closed early, staff said to blame Disney as they insisted on closing that early) or had very long queues. Kids Zone in particular - when we did get in after the queue jumpers had beaten us to it and the staff had shrugged and said they didn't have enough staff to stop this happening - the shows were mediocre at best. Prices for everything were hugely inflated and our Pick and Mix sweets came to almost £7. We put them back and it was the final straw for us really. I found the Disney finale was not great but having said that, we left before the end as we'd had enough. With 3 youngsters in our group, we feel disappointed for them and disgusted at Sainsbury's. We have complained but heard nothing back yet.

Ouch. Sainsburys and the organisers got this event spectacularly wrong.
Have just submitted this complaint on the Sainsburys' website: "I went to the Sainsburys Jubilee FAMILY festival on Sat 2 June with my children and we were bitterly disappointed with the event. It was not in the slightest bit organised with families and children in mind. We had to queue for 1 hour for food, 2 hours to get into any of the kids' shows (only for the sound quality to be so poor that children were immediately bored) and even 1 hour for the toilet (which was blocked). If this was a clever marketing ploy to raise the Sainsburys' brand profile, you have failed miserably, and the thousands of children with glum faces walking around Hyde Park yesterday was indicative of the overall terrible quality of the event. I do hope Sainsburys will attempt to put right the hurt and complete exploitation that we experienced yesterday by offering a full refund ASAP."

Couldn't agree more with all the comments. Thought it would be a nice treat for my niece (a strictly fan) and nephew (a disney cars fan). Saw neither. Main stage was full at least an hour before each show which was impossible for us as we spent our hour in a queue for food. To top it off spent over 40 mins in the Disney tent queue with a very excited 5 year old Cars fan only to be told to not to bother as we wouldn't get in for the last show of the day! Absolute farce. We couldn't stand it any longer and took the children to the Diana playground in Kensington Gardens where they had a fantastic time. As for the ridiculous orange drawstring bag, (the thank you for spending even more time in queues) maybe a better use for them would be for Sainsburys marketing team and all others involved in this shambles to put them over the heads to hide their embarassment.

We went on Saturday - we queued to get in for maybe 25 minutes, then for the loo - but only because we stayed at the loos near the entrance. There were other loos without queues. We didn't queue at all after that - we'd taken our own food and saw things that didn't need queues. There was loads going on in the main parade ring, like the tiny tots with thier mini-motorbikes, the cavalry horses, there was the Culture stage with loads of different things going on. I feel sorry for those who didn't enjoy their day - they missed out on a treat.